0

See the text below:

Let's hear it for Apple's very first touchscreen device, the Newton MessagePad. Anybody have one of these?

Notice the last sentence in the above snippet. Shouldn't it read "Anybody has one of these?" instead? Anybody is singular so using have there seems a tad out of place. Is it a colloquialism? Or just incorrect grammar?

To give you a bit of context, the text is from a MacLife magazine article about the history of Apple devices, recently shared on Facebook.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

It's a colloquial, informal way of saying "Does anyone have...?"

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    Yes. Anybody has one of these? is something I can't imagine a native English speaker saying or writing.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 11:13
  • But you'd say, "IF anybody has one of these..."
    – Oldbag
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 13:09
  • The Anybody ha(x) ...? form uses the singular; as does "Ha(x) anybody ...?" whereas "Does anybody ha(x) ...?" form uses the regular plural. Other ways are ungrammatical, which needs to stated, I suppose.
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 13:32
  • 1
    -1 for not citing a reliable source. It's essentially an opinion.
    – Kris
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 13:33
  • 2
    +1 for being correct anyway. If @Rick is a native English speaker, he knows about Conversational Deletion, whether he's familiar with the term or not. And native speaker intuition is a reliable source; certainly better than non-native intuition.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 16:25

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .